December 27, 2016 AT 9:00 am

New Jersey School Strives to Make Computer Science Available for All #MakerEducation

Since President Obama declared that computer science was for all, strides have been made to make it more accessible. The College Board created AP Computer Science Principles to demystify the concepts. Schools like the STEM3 Academy provide students with autism, Asperger’s syndrome or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with rich, high-tech school experiences. A growing number of educators have added a dash of computational thinking to classes.

So this year, celebrating Computer Science Education Week really felt like it was for all.

At the A. Harry Moore School, where our students have low-incidence disabilities, we believe that IEP means “I expect progress,” not just individualized education program.

Last week, there were many stations at our coding carnival that used the principles of Universal Design for Learning and differentiation based on the diverse needs of our learners.

Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.